A couple years ago, a friend pointed me to a young watchmaker out of Berlin Germany making custom open worked watches. Those designs, while beautiful, weren’t to my taste. Fast forward a little, and the Felipe Pikullik Sternenhimmel (translates as Starry Sky), captured my attention.

I reached out to Felipe and he sent over a catalogue of options— the options presented were 3 different movement setups, multiple options of finishing including a completely engraved movement, polished or brushed hands, and many different options for the dial. In fact, the catalogue of options was almost more like the guide to help people like me who aren’t as creative and get lost with too many choices. From there, we hopped on a video call to talk through it. It was a fun experience to talk to the person who’s making the actual watch, and to bounce ideas back and forth.

On the dial side, I stuck with the standard Felipe Pikullik Sternenhimmel layout of an airbrushed dial with white dots for stars with a nameplate at 12, and “stars” made of diamonds at 3/6/9. I went with a dark green so as to not have another blue or black dialed watch, but also liked the idea that a green sky is almost a little like the calm before the storm. I can’t speak for the other colors, especially the brighter ones, but on mine, I love how indoors, the dial is rather dark, almost black, but then in brighter light, it shows as a vibrant green. Without much of a bezel, the watch wears a little larger than the stated 41mm size. However, with the lugs curving down, I find it hugs the wrist quite well.

While I’m not a diamond person, I found that the diamonds as the markers fit the theme of the Felipe Pikullik Sternenhimmel, being complementary without being ostentatious. The hands are superbly polished, and it’s fun to be able to see my own face in them! The high level of reflectivity actually keeps it quite legible in low light, despite the lack of lume. I did go back and forth on the hands as with such an open dial, getting the lengths right is tricky. I wanted it long enough to reach across more of the dial, but also short enough to make it crystal clear which hand is which. Felipe has a couple of hand lengths he’s been using but is flexible in providing different lengths too. While I have the shorter hour hand on there now, I will probably get a slightly longer one in the near future.

Flipping over the Felipe Pikullik Sternenhimmel, we get to the star of the show. Based on a 6498 movement, I (with Felipe’s guidance) opted to go with what he calls the ZBM1 movement with gold-plated gears, a gold-plated engraved balance, blued screws and a frosted rhodium movement. I had hemmed and hawed on these decisions, but am glad for the choices made as the gold and blue provide good contrast. The ZMB1 features more carved out sections than his standard movement giving the opportunity to show off his impressive anglage. The wide bevels catch the light in a very pleasing way, though this shininess coupled with the dark tones makes it a pain to photograph! While I picked the dark rhodium frosting, I am curious how a lighter frosted color may have looked.

I went with the engraved balance as it reminds me of German watches. It has a beautiful pattern but my only gripe is I wish the engraving was deeper. On the whole, I love looking at the movement so much that there are times I set the watch up on the table so I can see the movement while I work.

The standard basic strap on the Felipe Pikullik Sternenhimmel is an embossed Hirsch strap that is nothing to write home about (though he does have upgraded options), so I immediately swapped it to a padded Bas & Lokes. I do wish that even on the basic strap, a signed buckle was included.

Felipe explained to me that the theme of Starry Sky was deliberately chosen as he plans to launch a moonphase in the future. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.